A migrant caravan of nearly 8,000 people is marching toward the U.S. southern border as Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas are set to meet with Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador in Mexico City on Wednesday to discuss the ongoing border crisis.
The migrant caravan is made up of people from an estimated 24 different countries and began its trek toward the U.S. border on Saturday, marching through the Mexican state of Chiapas — on the border of Guatemala — as of Wednesday, NBC News reported. Most of the migrants in the caravan are from Central America, Cuba, Venezuela, and Haiti, but according to Luis García Villagrán, who helped organize the caravan, some of the migrants are from Iran, Turkey, Syria, and Cameroon. Villagrán also projected that the caravan could grow up to 15,000 people by the time it reaches the U.S.-Mexico border, the New York Post reported.
Mexico has often allowed such caravans to travel through its country to the U.S. border, and López Obrador said last month that U.S. officials were asking him to do more to stop the caravan at Mexico’s border with Guatemala. The Mexican president, however, wants the U.S. to send more aid to Latin American countries and slash sanctions against the communist governments of Cuba and Venezuela.
“We are going to help, as we always do,” López Obrador said. “Mexico is helping reach agreements with other countries, in this case Venezuela.”
Shortly before meeting with Blinken and Mayorkas, López Obrador called on the U.S. to give more support to Latin American countries instead of “building walls,” adding that the illegal immigration issue is only “going to intensify,” according to The New York Times. During the meeting, Blinken “will discuss unprecedented irregular migration in the Western Hemisphere and identify ways Mexico and the United States will address border security challenges, including actions to enable the reopening of key ports of entry across our shared border,” the State Department said.
The Biden administration officials’ meeting with López Obrador comes amid a record surge of illegal border crossings as President Joe Biden faces continued calls to take action on the crisis. In November, a record 242,418 migrants were encountered attempting to illegally enter the U.S., according to Customs and Border Patrol (CBP). Authorities also saw record-setting days for illegal border crossings earlier this month with more than 10,000 migrants illegally entering the U.S. on multiple days.
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An estimated 8 million illegal immigrants have been apprehended by border patrol agents since Biden’s inauguration in January of 2021, and there have been approximately 1.7 million illegal immigrant gotaways under Biden’s watch.